Some have already began spawning dances with one another after three days in shipping and a full day in a bucket with an air stone.

the boraras look nice, but theyll look nicer after a few weeks the males should turn a darker red-orange color (not as red is the brigitae however). theyll color up better if you feed live food that was enriched with astaxanthin (i used "red" microworms). its the same pigment that gives shellfish their red color when cooked, and flamingos their pink hues.

Question, before you added the fish, we're you feeding the Amanos and Otos at all or were they self sustainable on the algae? I think I have made my Amanos lazy, they wait for feeding time and each take a micro pellet to chew on... I have to feed my betta though. Any thoughts?

feeding a betta and feeding shrimp are 2 separate things. bettas eat off the surface, shrimp off the floor.
feed your betta staple of good pellets (atisons betta pro is the best, omega one and hikari are also good) with some frozen/live food to keep him happy.
let the shrimp forage for its food. betta food is bad for them anyway, WAY too much protein.

My betta is very weird, I started feeding sinking pellets a while ago when i had espei rasboras and then later ember tetras, they ate the sinking pellets. now he eats them as they fall or off the floor... Unless the Amanos streak by and steal it, they get feisty... Guess I need to change back to floating pellets and retrain the betta now that I moved the other fish out... Then leave the Amanos to the BBA

this layout is at a point of absolute enjoyment: the kind where you sit back and relax and know everything is going right. The maculatus are super reddening up off of AP-1 Gold, and have already recognized me as the feeder.

this layout is at a point of absolute enjoyment: the kind where you sit back and relax and know everything is going right. The maculatus are super reddening up off of AP-1 Gold, and have already recognized me as the feeder.

Good luck with your IAPLC entry.
BTW -- what's the word on your "old school" 60-P rig? Decided in a substrate yet?
May I suggest keeping it in line with the "old shool ADA" theme/methodology and using Oiso sand or Akadama as your substrate? Get that beast up & running, man!!

Good luck with your IAPLC entry.
BTW -- what's the word on your "old school" 60-P rig? Decided in a substrate yet?
May I suggest keeping it in line with the "old shool ADA" theme/methodology and using Oiso sand or Akadama as your substrate? Get that beast up & running, man!!

Setting up the 60p Monday or Tuesday, so this journal will still get updates!

Oiso sand is a great idea, if I could source some, it was discontinued long ago.

I know the type of layout ill do, but a few things are still hanging out there.

the boraras look nice, but theyll look nicer after a few weeks the males should turn a darker red-orange color (not as red is the brigitae however). theyll color up better if you feed live food that was enriched with astaxanthin (i used "red" microworms). its the same pigment that gives shellfish their red color when cooked, and flamingos their pink hues.

feeding a betta and feeding shrimp are 2 separate things. bettas eat off the surface, shrimp off the floor.
feed your betta staple of good pellets (atisons betta pro is the best, omega one and hikari are also good) with some frozen/live food to keep him happy.
let the shrimp forage for its food. betta food is bad for them anyway, WAY too much protein.

The Maculatus have gotten pretty nicely red with the AP-1 Gold as their staple diet. I think they may actually be getting fat already, so I'll scale back their feedings (not because they don't eat it all, but rather, so they don't become gluttons!).

I plan on mixing foods in with a staple of AP-1 Gold (small size, easy digestion is win), with a few microworms like you mentioned. I might actually use some spirulina.

Instead of the 50% a week water change, would you be able to split that, maybe 25 , 25 in one week?

My painted red don't like a massive amount of water change.

Also, since the new growth is not entirely a lust green, isn't that a sign of a trace problem? Micro-nutrients ? I been told N might be lacking since I keep it at 5 - 10 ppm.

You can do 25% twice weekly, sure. The idea is to do as many as is necessary to keep things balanced. You need to consider the health concerns of your animals as well, so if 25% twice a week is less stress than 50% once a week, go for it.

Go ahead and up your dosing of micro's to compensate with the increased potassium and iron. The idea here is you're slowly increasing amounts to eliminate deficiencies, so if one has a problem, you increase it, then the other might need to come up a bit.

If you're lacking N, can I ask what soil you're using? If it's aqua soil, you very rarely lack in N or Phosphorus.

That is some seriously healthy looking HC and riccia. Bravo. HC looks to be about 3/4"-1" thick...any real threshold for a necessary trimming?

Thanks freph! The oxygen bubbles from Riccia in that quantity do a lot for the health of the system's organisms.

Normally I'd trim HC at about here, and will probably do so soon, but basically you want to sculpt HC to your desire. If you want it tight with the substrate you trim very early when it tries to mound this makes a tight, clean carpet.

Me? I want some mounding to balance the Riccia (which grows taller), so I want the level of Riccia to almost match the level of HC.

Honestly I'm just throwing my hat in the ring if it comes to fruition by that time just to throw my hat in the ring. A nano tank -might- break top 100, but just due to scale alone isn't going to win (since you have many, many people who can win based just on scale and applying the same detail work of the layout).

Ironically Nano tanks are more "macro" scenes, and larger tanks are more "micro" scenes.

That's definitely a goal of mine. But I have so much to learn and a long way to go before I feel confident enough to compete. But thanks for the motivation!

Take my advice and just enter the best tank you've got this year in 38 days.

Right now it's not about winning (even for me!), it's about participating in the world-wide aquascaping community! So what if you place like 780 or 649 or 984 or whatever. After the top 100 they're all pretty random placements anyway.

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